Asus A8N-SLI Premium with 4x 512MB sticks of RAM

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Paul Goodhew

Hi all, long story short:

have this motherboard with an AMD 3800+ x2 CPU. Had it running at 2.55ghz
(10x255) with 1:1 timings for Corsair 3200C2 2x 512 meg. this was working
fine. loving having my ram running at 510mhz.

then I got an extra 2 sticks of the same ram, another matched pair. now I
can only get the system to boot with memory timings of 133, or DDR266, with
the same overclock. so my memory is running with an effective speed of
340mhz.

this sux. I can understand that maybe I can't get the same overclock and
that some divider may be required. but to be running 60mhz below spec (with
quite loose timings (3-3-3-6) is pretty crap.

do you think flashing the bios to 1.009 will help? I am currently using
version 1.006.

any help appreciated...
 
"Paul Goodhew" said:
Hi all, long story short:

have this motherboard with an AMD 3800+ x2 CPU. Had it running at 2.55ghz
(10x255) with 1:1 timings for Corsair 3200C2 2x 512 meg. this was working
fine. loving having my ram running at 510mhz.

then I got an extra 2 sticks of the same ram, another matched pair. now I
can only get the system to boot with memory timings of 133, or DDR266, with
the same overclock. so my memory is running with an effective speed of
340mhz.

this sux. I can understand that maybe I can't get the same overclock and
that some divider may be required. but to be running 60mhz below spec (with
quite loose timings (3-3-3-6) is pretty crap.

do you think flashing the bios to 1.009 will help? I am currently using
version 1.006.

any help appreciated...
Click to expand...

I don't see any mention of Command Rate. You should be able
to run DDR333 Command Rate 1T ot DDR400 Command Rate 2T with
four sticks.

Command rate helps compensate for the weak drive characteristics
of the AMD processor. But at the expense of dropping the memory
bandwidth. (I.e. You get a more impressive clock for the
RAM, but bandwidth drops 15% to 20% in synthetic benchmarks.)
You'll find DDR400 2T still gives better performance.

You should be using 2x1GB modules instead, if you want 2GB total
RAM. And don't expect 1GB sticks to behave the same as 512MB
sticks.

Have a look around this site - if it draws electricity, they've
tried to overclock it:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/index.php

This thread discusses modules. Start with the last page of the
thread and work back. The reason for this, is the Crucial
Ballistix they were using, stopped shipping. Then some other
stuff was shipped in its place (maybe around Aug.2005). It is
better to start with today's favorite RAM, since supplies of
the good stuff are constantly changing.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=67762&page=52&highlight=1gb+modules

Paul
 
Paul said:
I don't see any mention of Command Rate. You should be able
to run DDR333 Command Rate 1T ot DDR400 Command Rate 2T with
four sticks.

Command rate helps compensate for the weak drive characteristics
of the AMD processor. But at the expense of dropping the memory
bandwidth. (I.e. You get a more impressive clock for the
RAM, but bandwidth drops 15% to 20% in synthetic benchmarks.)
You'll find DDR400 2T still gives better performance.

You should be using 2x1GB modules instead, if you want 2GB total
RAM. And don't expect 1GB sticks to behave the same as 512MB
sticks.

Have a look around this site - if it draws electricity, they've
tried to overclock it:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/index.php

This thread discusses modules. Start with the last page of the
thread and work back. The reason for this, is the Crucial
Ballistix they were using, stopped shipping. Then some other
stuff was shipped in its place (maybe around Aug.2005). It is
better to start with today's favorite RAM, since supplies of
the good stuff are constantly changing.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=67762&page=52&highlight
=1gb+modules

Paul
Click to expand...

hi paul, thanks for your help, I will check it all out...
 
Paul said:
Hi all, long story short:

have this motherboard with an AMD 3800+ x2 CPU. Had it running at 2.55ghz
(10x255) with 1:1 timings for Corsair 3200C2 2x 512 meg. this was working
fine. loving having my ram running at 510mhz.

then I got an extra 2 sticks of the same ram, another matched pair. now I
can only get the system to boot with memory timings of 133, or DDR266, with
the same overclock. so my memory is running with an effective speed of
340mhz.

this sux. I can understand that maybe I can't get the same overclock and
that some divider may be required. but to be running 60mhz below spec (with
quite loose timings (3-3-3-6) is pretty crap.

do you think flashing the bios to 1.009 will help? I am currently using
version 1.006.

any help appreciated...
Click to expand...

hi

i have a second box that i just put in some "spare" modules, 2x 512m! this machine had
allready 2x 512m some other brand! (not a good mix) this got me in your possition, memory
reverted to pc2700 speed!!

i solved this simply by selecting manual timings in the bios and degraded it slightly, cl
2.5t -> cl 3t and cr 1t -> cr 2t. i think the bios cant deside what timings it should apply
when you mix modules!!

coco
 
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